From 1909 to 1914, Paris high fashion was dominated by French designer Paul Poiret, who put an end to wasp waists and constricting corsets and revived a simple, Empire-waisted silhouette. He is best known for the hobble skirt, to which he later added draped and belted knee-length tunics. Popular between 1910 and 1914, hobble skirts were long skirts cut so narrow at the ankles that they hindered walking. According to one account, Poiret's design may have been inspired by what aviation event?More...

Perhaps the most famous sheep in history, Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell through the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique, in which the nucleus of an egg cell is replaced by the nucleus of a cell from the organism to be cloned. In successful cases, the egg cell develops into a healthy fetus, but the success rate of cloning has been low. Of 277 eggs, only 29 created viable embryos, and Dolly was the only one to survive to adulthood. How did she get her name?More...

Pompidou was premier of France from 1962 to 1968 and president from 1969 to 1974. As Charles de Gaulle's chief aide from 1958 to 1959, he helped draft the constitution of the Fifth Republic. He secretly negotiated a cease-fire in the Algerian War in 1961 and was appointed premier the following year. In 1968, he skillfully negotiated an end to the French student-worker strikes. Elected president in 1969, he continued de Gaulle's policies. What job did Pompidou hold before he entered politics?More...

Quotation of the Day

Ambition is like choler, which is a humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped; but if it be stopped, and cannot have its way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous.

On July 5, 1995, four years after Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union, the national government adopted a new constitution. Constitution Day, a public holiday, commemorates the creation of a new governmental framework and the beginning of another era for this small country, which for over seven decades had been a Soviet satellite. The government rewards the public sector with a day off on Constitution Day. Victory Park, located in the capital city of Yerevan, usually stages performances that feature traditional music and dance. More...

Brain scans performed on 21 sleeping babies suggest that the brains of infants as young as three months old can respond to emotions in human voices. When the babies were exposed to recordings of human voices, the area of the brain that in adults reacts to human vocalizations became activated. In addition, when they heard sad sounds, such as crying, the limbic region, which is associated with emotional processes in adults, responded. By identifying when these sorts of brain systems develop, researchers hope to better understand what goes wrong in cases of autism and at what point in development differences arise.More...

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